How Much Do Automated Teller Machines Cost? How Cash Supply and Distribution in Switzerland Works

How Much Do Automated Teller Machines Cost? How Cash Supply and Distribution in Switzerland Works

Apr 27, 2026 7 minutes Co-authored by Beat Glauser, Head Product Cash, SIX

Automated teller machines (ATMs) are an essential part of cash supply and distribution in Switzerland, but operating them involves much more, including cash management, logistics, monitoring, maintenance, and security processes. Read on to discover what costs this infrastructure causes despite decreasing cash usage and how it can be kept viable for the future.

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Digital payment methods have already largely supplanted cash in monetary transactions. The people of Switzerland nevertheless wish to keep cash in existence and want to continue in the future to be able to easily obtain coins and banknotes anyplace, as a survey conducted by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) shows.

Swiss voters’ acceptance of the counterproposal to the “Cash Is Freedom” initiative in March 2026 also underscores this want: in the future, it will be enshrined in Switzerland’s constitution that the franc will remain the official Swiss currency and that the federal government will ensure an adequate supply of physical cash in circulation through the SNB. The federal government, banks, retailers, and infrastructure operators regularly exchange views with the SNB on the future of cash infrastructure at a recurring “cash roundtable".

Like the rail transportation network and electrical power lines, Bancomat ATMs and other automated teller machines are part of the provision of a basic nationwide service. However, the operation of ATMs is facing pressures stemming from security risks such as burglaries using explosives, potential cash supply gaps caused by ATM location closures, and cost issues. Public debate often lumps different costs and fees into the same basket, blurring who pays for what and to where the money goes.

Accordingly, people know little about the processes and costs behind cash withdrawals at ATMs.

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Bancomat vs. Automated Teller Machine: Two Terms, One Meaning

Switzerland uses a variety of names for automated cash dispensers. The English term ATM (automated teller machine) is widely used. Alongside its German translation, Geldautomat, the terms Bancomat and Postomat are also common, though there are differences here:

  • Bancomat ATMs are operated by banks themselves or by a company on behalf of banks.
  • Postomat ATMs are operated by the Swiss Post.

In Switzerland, the term Bancomat is a registered trademark of SIX and is widely used throughout Switzerland’s different language regions.

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What Functions Must an ATM Fulfill Today?

Although usage of physical cash has decreased, expectations regarding cash supply and distribution and, by extension, ATMs are nonetheless still demanding:

  • High availability: round the clock 365 days a year, different banknote denominations, foreign currencies as well in some cases.
  • Security: protection against skimming, physical manipulation, money laundering, and cyberattacks.
  • Convenience: uniform user guidance, comprehensible language, accessibility.
  • Free choice: withdrawals and deposits with debit and credit cards or with proprietary bank cards, or cardless via QR codes.

To ensure this efficiently, Swiss banks rely on ATMfutura. This common software platform standardizes the user interface of all Bancomat ATMs in Switzerland. SIX operates and maintains the platform on behalf of banks as a neutral infrastructure provider.

The cash supply and distribution infrastructure remains invisible most of the time – as long as it works properly. However, making cash available at all times requires considerable continuous effort and overhead behind the scenes.

What Does It Take to Operate an ATM?

Behind every seemingly simple withdrawal at an ATM, there are a lot of processes concerning cash logistics, technology, maintenance, security, and coordination running in the background.

Routing and Supplying Cash

  • Cash management and forecasting: Banks manage and route their cash inventory in a manner to ensure that enough cash is available at each location at the right time. Good planning reduces inventory understocks and overstocks and thus lowers costs and risks. How forecasting, bookkeeping, and difference handling are organized depends on the operational model employed.
  • Ordering and preparing cash: Banks and infrastructure operators obtain banknotes and coins via the SNB and cash processing institutions, which sort and inspect banknotes and prepare them for stocking ATMs.
  • Logistics and cash-in-transit: Cash-in-transit (CIT) companies like Loomis, for example, deliver cash to ATMs and pick up excess banknotes from them under stringent security conditions.

Safeguarding Technical Equipment, Operations, and Security

  • 24/7 monitoring and troubleshooting: Control centers continuously monitor cash stock levels, technical fault signals, and security alarms. Abnormalities automatically trigger technician or CIT team deployments.
  • Equipment procurement and maintenance: Manufacturers and service partners deliver the equipment, conduct maintenance and upgrades, and resolve malfunctions onsite, a service that also includes replacement parts, ATM cleaning and software updates.
  • Network and connectivity: ATMs must be securely and reliably connected to banks, processors, and other systems in order to be able to handle transactions at any time.
  • Alarming and onsite intervention: Security concepts and troubleshooting plans enable rapid detection and onsite handling of incidents.
  • Regulations and security: The operation of ATMs is subject to regulations on combating money laundering and on data privacy and IT security, for example. Specialists implement these requirements, document controls, and supervise audits.

Organizing Location and Operation

  • Site selection and infrastructure: An ATM, be it owned or leased, needs a suitable location. Factors including accessibility, security, and technical requirements are key siting criteria.
  • Acquiring and processing: Card transactions get authorized, processed, and charged and credited to the respective parties involved in the background.
  • Supplier management: Operating an ATM requires coordinating numerous service providers and suppliers for things ranging from hardware to logistics and maintenance.
  • Marketing and communication: Depending on the location and operator, the visibility of an ATM can also be a factor in promoting its use and acceptance.

A central issue is how to manage this infrastructure efficiently in the future. The less cash that the populace withdraws, the greater the weight of fixed operating costs per transaction. This makes efficient processes, continuous monitoring, and cooperative models like ATM pooling all the more important because banks, as operators of ATMs, are called upon to organize their cash services in a way that keeps them flexible, cost-effective, and dependable in the future.

An operating model that creates genuine transparency is needed. As long as even small parts of the value chain stay in the hands of banks, they continue to bear operational responsibility and the associated costs.

Beat Glauser, Head Product Cash at SIX

How Much Does It Cost to Operate an ATM?

A panel of experts drawn from banks, cash processing institutions, the Swiss Post, the IG Detailhandel Schweiz retailers’ interest group, the SNB, and SIX has systematically itemized the costs of operating ATMs:

  • The total cost of supplying and distributing cash in Switzerland amounts to between 640 million and 880 million francs per year, a figure that factors in costs stemming from bank branches, ATMs, and upstream processes such as the manufacturing and minting of banknotes and coins.
  • Costs per ATM amount to 45,000 to 55,000 francs per year.
  • The cost per transaction amounts to around 2 francs at an ATM and to between 17 and 25 francs at a bank teller window.

According to the report cited above, many of the cost items will hardly change in the future, at least not in the near term. This makes it clear that less cash usage does not directly imply lower operating costs. On the contrary, decreasing volume actually increases transaction costs.

Furthermore, analyses performed by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts reveal that purchasing a modern ATM alone can cost between 40,000 and 90,000 francs; regular maintenance then costs 15,000 to 40,000 francs per year. Those cost ranges illustrate why operating an ATM in low-use locations can hardly cover the expenses involved.

Fixed-Cost Logic: Fewer Withdrawals, Higher Costs

One key finding of the SNB study was that personnel and infrastructure expenses account for around two-thirds of the total cost of providing access to cash. Those expense items are hardly reducible in the near term.

So, less use of cash does not mean lower operating costs. Quite the contrary, in fact, because:

  • costs for renting the location, equipment depreciation, insurance, and monitoring infrastructure, as well as a large part of the personnel expenses, get incurred regardless of how many withdrawals occur at an ATM;
  • if the number of transactions decreases, these fixed costs spread across fewer occurrences – the cost per withdrawal thus increases.

International analyses also shine a light on this fixed-cost logic: a study by the German Bundesbank and other central banks points out that a decline in the use of cash amid unchanged demand for its availability leads to rising unit costs.

Why Operating Costs and Customer Fees Are Not the Same

The public debate often conflates the costs of operating ATMs with fees for withdrawing cash, though they actually exist on different planes. The operating costs stem from the infrastructure, cash logistics, maintenance, security, monitoring, and site operation.

Those costs have to be distinguished from the fees that banks charge each other in the background when customers use another bank’s ATM. The institutions charge the transaction costs only to each other. Whether a cash withdrawal is free of charge for customers depends on the client bank’s terms and conditions and is usually part of a banking package or price list.

Direct fees at ATMs tend to be found more at third-party providers outside Switzerland or in touristy locations, for example. They are not to be equated with the standardized Swiss pooled model.

Cooperative Models Keep Cash Supply and Distribution Affordable

Under the framework of ATMfutura, banks in Switzerland have agreed on a transparent common operating model. The goal is to divide costs fairly and not to tap additional sources of fees at the expense of customers.

Beat Glauser says that a future-proof cash model needs two things above all: flexibility and cost transparency. It will be viable in the long run only if banks have the possibility to use Bancomat ATMs for their customers together with other institutions, he explains: “Cost-effectiveness derives not from an individual ATM location, but from a steerable cooperative network.”

How SIX Continues to Ensure Cash Supply and Distribution

Less usage of cash amid unchanged demand for its availability necessitates efficient, cooperative operating models. SIX keeps access to cash affordable in the long run through intelligent operating models like ATM pooling on behalf of single or multiple banks.

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